Based on an award-winning and international best-seller, first-person narrative non-fiction book about using dreams and intuitions to survive cancer three times when conventional medical scientific information failed to find it. It's a true story that may change your belief system and possibly shake it to its foundations.
We are never alone in our hours of need and this has never been more evident than in my story.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

My guest blogger today is someone I met at a Wake Up Women event and immediately knew I had met a wonderful woman. Although she was soft spoken, her energy made her stand out from the crowd. Five minutes into my conversation with her I realized what it was about her that had drawn me to her--an incredible sense of integrity that renewed my faith in the humanity. Yes here really are women who stand in their power and speak their truth no matter how life threatening it may be. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Marcy.

by Marcy J MaslovYou do not trust any of
your staff to talk to clients because you do not know how they will respond to
client requests for additional work.As
a result you find yourself working less and less on strategic initiatives that
can build business.

How do you address this situation and get back to focusing on strategic
initiatives?

This is a true story shared by a colleague during an
ethics presentation I delivered. The colleague was stumped and frustrated because
the business was suffering and he didn’t know how to “turn the boat around.”

What are the issues inherent in the scenario? What
advice would you give to this colleague?What would you do if you were in his shoes?

Inherently, we have an issue of trust, but this is
not the root cause of the problem here.Something else has led us to take on all the work ourselves and “protect
our territory”, so to speak. How do we learn to let go? How do we communicate
our goals, expectations and preferences?How do we delegate authority, and how do we determine reliability?

If we don’t figure out a way to focus on strategic
initiatives our business will suffer greatly, ultimately to the point of
closing the doors. We have to learn to let go and trust. But trusting requires
us to establish a framework within which everyone in the organization
understands their role, responsibility and authority.This is really the root cause of the
problem.We haven’t established this
framework, so we’re forced to trust blindly – and that translates to some as
giving up control to everyone else.Once
we establish this framework, the next logical step is to hold everyone
accountable for their actions. But first we should establish definitions of
acceptable behavior so our expectations are clear and each individual can opt
in or opt out.

Easier said than done, right?Past history, current events, cultural
values, or pressures of the day all conspire to get in the way of implementing
this framework and communicating effectively.We’re afraid of miscommunicating, and we’re afraid of the potential
conflicts that might occur by holding people accountable. So we let things
slide. And yet, if we look at the flipside, we might just find someone in our
organization that is better than we are at developing client relations and who
loves doing the work!

There’s always a positive for every negative. I
think it is some sort of universal law.So what is the positive opportunity in this situation?Could we possibly learn something from our
staff?Could they be listening more
actively to our clients, and keeping them engaged? Could we see new
opportunities for products or services? Could we even re-define what we’re
offering to more closely align with the needs and wants of our clients?

Let’s bring in the staff viewpoint to round out the
discussion.If the staff sees you taking
away more and more responsibility, how do they interpret this?Do they view this as a loss of trust?Do they welcome the lower level of
responsibility? Something in between?Our associates always seem to have a gut reaction to the loss of
trust.It’s like laser vision.They sense it, feel it, know it
instinctively.And they respond in
various ways. I’ve actually seen reactions anywhere from gleeful acceptance,
relief, resignation, defiance, or even destruction of company property. The
ultimate consequence is losing key employees who feel undervalued and
disengaged from the business.

We forget, sometimes, that letting go can actually
be rewarding; that delegating authority to others can actually provide better
results than we could achieve on our own.It is harder, because it takes time to actually define what we want,
communicate that desire clearly and build the relationships to a point where we
can rely on the work of others.

So here is the dilemma:How do we build accountability and reliability
in order to make it comfortable sharing responsibility with others?

What type of framework would you create in this
scenario?Write in your comments and
share your perspectives on this situation.

I wish to thank Marcy for sharing these insights and scenarios from the workplace and place of integrity with us. Accountability and reliability are words that are becoming an endangered species in the faced paced business world of finances...and life in general.

About the author:

After watching companies and clients struggle with
ethical dilemmas, Marcy J. Maslov invented a
business ethics board game to provide a practice arena for solving real-life
ethical dilemmas. Marcy is founder and CEO of Empowerment Unlimited Coaching,
LLC, a business coaching practice devoted to building strong, ethical leaders
and entrepreneurs. She has extensive Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial background
that includes facilitating corporate ethics courses, coaching professionals to
define and achieve their own success and teaching business owners how to read
and understand their own financial statements. Marcy has lived or worked in
over 20 countries, including France, Mexico and Canada. She is a Certified
Professional Coactive Coach and CPA and has earned her MBA from Duke
University. Write to Marcy at marcy@e-Factorgame.com and visit
her websites www.coacheuc.com and www.e-Factorgame.com for special
coaching and ethics program offers.

About the author- Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos is
a three- time breast cancer survivor who penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND.
www.survivingcancerland.com , Radio Co-host, keynote & high paid speaker, www.WakeUpWomen.com member & is
represented by Steve Allen PR Media.
Follow her on her social media links and blogs from her websites & enjoy
her free download@ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com

Saturday, June 15, 2013

My guest blogger today is Rosalyn Kahn. Her insight into the positive aspects of community and the Random Acts of Kindness they perform is astounding. Often, in our busy lives of full schedules we forget the importance of community. In her article Rosalyn reminds us.

I recently made some connections with local public libraries as a venue to speak. In talking to a librarian in West Los Angeles she old me about a Senior who had gone to help a disabled boy. He had done everything on help this youngster to be successful in school, writing down his test and making sure he was treated fairly. This senior helped him from his youth and younger days all the way up to recently graduating from UCLA. She told me he was recently recognized receiving an honorary degree for all the work he had done on the behalf of the youngster.

Another member of a Rotary Club in Woodland Hills shared this story. The Rotary organization's original focused was to serve the needs of those with polio. Recently the disease has been nearly eradicated and not as much of a threat. Thus the organization has shifted its focus.

This group meets at a local dentist office where they discovered a senior who was paralyzed from the neck down. He has an extraordinary sister who has kept him in top shape all the way to his 90th year o life. He eats the right food, is in great health and has an incredible outlook on life.

In the early treatment of his disease he was kept in a grey metal suit that held his whole body together. He laid in bed and was surrounded by eight other people who suffered the same diagnosis. After his stay in the hospital, it was suggested that he be moved to an assisted living place. His family wold have nothing to do with it. They have kept him in his own home and he is doing quite well.

Recently, his dental needs were brought to the attention of the Rotary club. They are providing the badly needed dental needs for this gentleman. This story is a true blessing of the kind things that are going on in the world.

Northridge Kiwanis spent the day covering the valley with flags on behalf of Shephard of the Valleys plan to celebrate a tremendous 4th of July. Several weeks ago they helped sponsor the Senior Dance and recognition affair. It was amazing to see how many vibrant seniors are doing their incredible acts of Random Kindness. The following day there was an event sponsored by the Kiwanis where they were selling balloons to pop with prizes to help promote their causes.

During my visit to the Kiwanis in San Fernando I found that they had a a really unique program that provided shoes for those kids who otherwise would not have any shoes on their feet. Sharing this story with the high school students in Echo park, they dreamed of a similar program being offered at their school.

It is great to recognize there are so many groups of people who are working on the better behalf of our world.

I wish to thank my guest blogger, Rosalyn Kahn, for showing us how important a sense of community is to our lives. There is such comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our times of need or celebration.